(New York City, NY) - JAZZ STANDARD, one of the nation's premier jazz clubs, presents another month of great jazz in October. From October 4-6, The Andrew Hill Legacy Project presents three different groups playing the music of Andrew Hill (1937-2007), with appearances by many of the late great pianist/composer's former sidemen including Greg Osby, J.D. Parran, Ron Horton, and more. Below is a schedule of these October performances at Jazz Standard, along with information on the musicians. For everything else, visit www.jazzstandard.com.

For reservations call Jazz Standard at 212.576.2232 or visit www.ticketweb.comArtists and schedules are subject to change

OCTOBER 2011 SCHEDULE

10/4 - 10/6 THE ANDREW HILL LEGACY PROJECT

Andrew Hill, who would be 80 this year, was "a pianist and composer of highly original and sometimes opaquely inner-dwelling jazz..." wrote Ben Ratliff in The New York Times. "From the first significant album in his discography (Black Fire, 1963) to the last (Time Lines, 2006), his work is an eloquent example of how jazz can combine traditional and original elements, notation and pure improvisation, playing both outside and inside strict time and harmony." An outstanding cast of musicians, personally selected by Hill's widow Joanne Robinson Hill for their close connection with his music, will explore the timeless music of Andrew Hill in three special nights at Jazz Standard.

Not long after launching his solo career, Greg Osby performed on two Andrew Hill recordings for Blue Note, Eternal Spirit (1989) and But Not Farewell (1990). In 2000, Hill returned the favor when he appeared on Osby's Blue Note CD The Invisible Hand - one of only two sideman appearances the pianist had made since 1965! "Greg has an incredible sense of rhythm and harmonic accuracy," said Andrew Hill, "and picks the right notes with a precision that isn't common to people with his technical versatility...He has a love of the art that transcends the style of music he's playing." Holding down the piano chair for two of these three nights is Frank Kimbrough, whom Hill said is "one of the few meaningful artists of the future."
Music Charge: $25

Vijay Iyer was a striving self-taught pianist and Yale student of math and physics when he discovered the music of Andrew Hill...and a new world of sound. In a conversation with jazz journalist and DJ Ted Panken, Vijay Iyer called Andrew Hill's 1963 LP Smokestack "one of my favorite albums of all time, of any artist, on any instrument...The song itself ("Smokestack") has such majesty to it, such mystery...It's like the whole thing is this massive polyphonic labyrinth." Iyer's recording of Andrew Hill's "Smokestack" is a highlight of his Grammy-nominated CD Historicity (ACT Music, 2009), voted #1 Album of the Year and #1 Rising Star Small Ensemble in the annual DownBeat Magazine International Critics Poll.
Music Charge: $25

In November 2006, J.D. Parran, Ron Horton, John Hebert, and Eric McPherson all appeared with Andrew Hill at Merkin Concert Hall in New York to perform the music of Hill's album Passing Ships - recorded for Blue Note in 1969 but not issued until 2003. In his JazzTimes.com review, Bill Milkowski called Passing Ships "a precursor of the kind of writing that Hill would pursue more than 30 years later with his big band on A Beautiful Day...This unconventional nonet work stands as a masterpiece in Hill's discography." He continued: "Both Hebert and McPherson inhabited Hill's shape-shifting trio music, successfully establishing an organic hand-in-glove chemistry with the unorthodox pianist's sparse, broken rhythms, staggered harmonies and dramatic melodicism." The sextet will also play from Hill's award-winning CD Dusk (Palmetto, 1999), which was loosely inspired by the Harlem Renaissance novelist and poet Jean Toomer Cane. Music Charge: $25